CERTIFICATION
Can you Meet the Challenge of
ALS®, PLS®, CLA® or Certified PP®?
There is no time like the present to make the commitment to become
certified. If you want to become an Accredited Legal Secretary, a
certified Professional Legal Secretary, a Certified Legal Assistant
or a Certified Professional Paralegal , Legal Support Staff of
North Carolina, Inc. ("LSSNC") can point you in the right
direction, help you prepare for these exams, and give you the moral
support you need to better yourself in the professional world that
we live in!
Accredited Legal Secretary:
The ALS® Examination will help you demonstrate your ability
to perform business communication tasks, gauge your ability to
maintain office records and calendars, and prioritize multiple tasks
when given real-life situations, will measure your understanding of
office equipment and related procedures, denotes your aptitude for
understanding legal terminology, legal complexities and supporting
documents, will access your recognition of accounting terms in order
to solve accounting problems, and will appraise your knowledge of
law office protocol as prescribed by ethical codes. In order to sit
for the examination, you need to have completed (i) an accredited
office curriculum course, (ii) the NALS® Legal Training
Course, or (iii) one year of general office experience. You do not
have to be a member of NALS® to take the exam.
There are three parts of the ALS®
Examination:
• Part 1: Written Communications
• Part 2: Office Procedures and Legal Knowledge
• Part 3: Ethics, Human Relations, and Judgment
The fee is $100 or $75 if you are a member of NALS®
.
Through our Association, the Examination
Dates are:
March: First Saturday
September: Last Saturday
The application deadlines are:
For the March exam – Postmarked by January 1st
For the September exam – Postmarked by August 1st
As the study materials vary, LSSNC
can provide you with a list of required reading!
Matter/Doc No: 00-3018 / 00024449.DOC}
Professional Legal Secretary:
PLS® is the designation for lawyer’s assistants who want to
be identified as exceptional!
Personal motivation is necessary to attain such a goal.
The purpose of the examination is to certify a lawyer’s assistant as
a person who possesses a mastery of office skills, the ability to
interact on a professional level with attorneys, clients, and other
support staff, the discipline to assume responsibility and exercise
initiative and judgment, and a working knowledge of procedural law,
the law library, and how to prepare legal documents.
In order to sit for the examination, you need to have three years’
experience in the legal field. A partial waiver of the three year
requirement may be granted for post-secondary
degrees, the successful completion of the ALS® Examination,
or other certifications.
The maximum waiver is one year. You do not have to be a member of
NALS® to take the exam.
There are four parts of the PLS® Examination:
• Part 1: Written Communications
• Part 2: Office Procedures and Technology
• Part 3: Ethics and Judgment
• Part 4: Legal Knowledge and Skills
The fee is $200 or $150 if you are a member of NALS®
.
Through our Association, the Examination Dates are:
March: First Saturday
September: Last Saturday
The application deadlines are:
For the March exam – Postmarked by January 1st
For the September exam – Postmarked by August 1st
Again, as the study materials vary, LSSNC can provide you
with a list of required reading!
Matter/Doc No: 00-3018 / 00024449.DOC
Certified Professional Paralegal
(offered through NALS®):
The inaugural testing for the Certified PP Examination is
scheduled for March 11, 2004, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The inaugural testing will only be given to qualifying PLSs.
Candidates who
have not received PLS® certification may take the exam later
in 2004. Qualified PLSs will received Certified PP
certification after successful completion of a three-hour exam on
substantive law. Other candidates wishing to take the exam (not
available for the inaugural testing period) will receive Certified
PP certification after successful completion of a four-part, all-day
exam, which will include:
• Part 1: Written Communications
• Part 2: Legal Knowledge and Skills
• Part 3: Ethics and Judgment Skills
• Part 4: Substantive Law
Study materials, exam applications and fees are expected to be
announced in
August of 2003.
You are qualified to sit for the Certified PP® Examination if
you have five years experience performing paralegal/legal assistant
duties (a candidate may receive a partial waiver of one year if he
or she has a post-secondary degree, other certification, or a
paralegal certificate; a candidate with a paralegal degree may
receive a two-year partial waiver).
As with the ALS® and PLS® certifications, the
Certified PP® certification is valid for five years.
Recertification will require 75 hours of CLE and is mandatory
to remain certified. A PLS® who successfully completes the
Certified PP® exam and wishes
to list both certifications should note the certifications as PLS,
Certified PP.
Certified Legal Assistant
(offered through NALA®):
The CLA program, established in 1976, serves as (i) a
national professional standard for legal assistants, (ii) a means of
identifying those who have reached this standard, (iii) a
credentialing program responsive to the needs of legal assistants,
and (iv) a positive, on going, voluntary program to encourage the
growth of the legal assistant profession, attesting to and
encouraging a high level of achievement.
In order to sit for the examination, a legal assistant must meet one
of the following
alternate requirements:
• Graduation from a legal assistant program that is:
» Approved by the American Bar Association; or
» An associate degree program; or
» A post-baccalaureate certificate program in legal assistant
studies; or
» A bachelor’s degree program in legal assistant studies; or
» A legal assistant program which consists of a minimum of 60
semester house, of which at least 15 semester hours are substantive
legal courses.
• A bachelor’s degree in any field plus one year’s experience as a
legal assistant.
• A high school diploma or equivalent, plus seven year’s experience
as a legal assistant under the supervision of a member of the Bar,
plus evidence of a minimum of twenty hours of continuing legal
education credit to have been completed within a two year
period prior to the examination date.
The CLA® Examination is a two-day, comprehensive examination,
based on federal law and procedure. The major subject areas of
examination are:
• Communications (which includes human relations and interviewing
techniques)
• Ethics
• Legal Research
• Judgment and Analytical Ability
• Substantive Law (which includes legal terminology) – This section
consists of five
mini-examinations covering (i) the American Legal System and four of
the areas listed below as selected by the examinee:
» Administrative Law
» Bankruptcy
» Business
» Organizations/Corporations
» Contracts
» Family Law
» Criminal Law and Procedure
» Litigation
» Probate and Estate Planning
» Real Estate
Study materials include the NALA Manual for Legal Assistants,
3 Ed., CLA Study Guide
and Mock Examination, Real Estate Law Specialty Review Manual,
Business
Organizations Specialty Review Manual and the CLA Review
Manual, 2 Ed.
The CLA® Examination is offered three times a year:
March/April (depends on the holiday schedule), July and December.
Filing deadline dates are January 15th for the March/April
examination, May 15th for the July examination, and October 1st for
the December examination.
The fee for the exam is $225 for
NALA® members and $250 for non-members.
Matter/Doc No: 00-3018 / 00024449.DOC
Certification…..can
you meet the challenge?
For More Information Contact:
Donna Black, PLS
Pharr & Boynton, PLLC
627 Coliseum Drive
Winston-Salem, NC 27106
(W) 336-734-1012
(F) 336-721-0039
dblack@pharrlaw.com
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